EXPERIMENTS 301
colony of Chalicodoma sicula in full activity. I can
draw at pleasure on the populous city. The insect
Is small—less than half the size of C. muraria ; no
matter—all the more merit if it can traverse the four
kilometres which I have in reserve for it, and find its
nest. I took forty, isolating them as usual in paper
cones.
A ladder was placed against the wall in order to
reach the nest; it was to be used by my daughter
Aglae, to allow her to mark the exact instant when
the first one returned. I set the clock on the
mantelpiece and my watch together, that I might
compare the moment of departure and arrival. Then
I carried off my forty captives to the spot where
Chalicodoma muraria works beside the Aygues. The
expedition had a double scope—to observe Reaumur's
mason bee and set the Sicilian one free. The latter
would have to fly back four kilometres.
At length my prisoners were released—all marked
with a large white dot in the middle of the thorax.
It is not for nothing that one successively handles
forty wrathful Hymenoptera which forthwith unsheath
and make play with their poisoned stings. Before
the mark could be made, too often the stab was given,
and my burning fingers moved in self-defence some-
times against my will; I handled them with more
consideration for myself than for the insect, and
sometimes squeezed my bees too hard. To experi-
ment in order to lift a small corner of the veil
that covers a truth is a beautiful and noble thing,
which can enable one to brave many perils, yet
surely one may show a little impatience if in a brief
space of time one's finger tips get stung forty times.